Scholarly Articles

A Call to Mind: How are MG Authors Challenging the Stigmatisation of Mental Health? Elaine Lambert asks how Middle Grade fiction can encourage openness around mental health problems.

Elaine Lambert (Author)

24.05.2025
Writing Hopeful Climate Fiction for Middle Grade Readers Many children suffer from climate anxiety. Rupert Barrington asks, how can children’s fiction help them?

Rupert Barrington (Author)

24.05.2025
Representing “Otherness”: Animals in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Hundred and One Dalmatians, and Beyond Author Piu DasGupta considers the issue of the alterity (or “otherness”) of animals as a category, in classic fiction and in her own writing.

Piu DasGupta (Author)

24.05.2025
“A Balance Between the Real and the Fictive”: Writing Nuanced Queer Representation in Young Adult Historical Fiction Julia Dielmann identifies potential narrative strategies for writing queer historical fiction and considers their application in her work.

Julia Dielmann (Author)

24.05.2025
When the Plot Thickens: Writing the Textured Children’s Novel in an Era of Corporate Taste Noah Weisz illuminates techniques writers can use to thicken their stories’ textures and build more impactful novels without falling afoul of industry constraints.

Noah Weisz (Author)

24.05.2025
Learning Curve: The University-Set Novel Made Palatable, and Appropriate, for Young Adult Readers Caitlin Clements makes the case for the university setting in YA literature, done appropriately for young readers.

Caitlin Clements (Author)

24.05.2025
How Do Authors Negotiate Contemporary Notions of Gender and Historical Accuracy When Creating Female Characters in Middle Grade Historical Fiction? Anna Trusty considers how notions of gender have been interpreted in children’s historical fiction.

Anna Trusty (Author)

24.05.2025
Under the Hood of the Verse Novel: A Consideration of Variation in Form and Technique in the Contemporary Verse Novel for Young Adults Verse novelist Tia Fisher looks broadly at the development of the form, analysing what constitutes a verse novel and why it isn’t just ‘chopped up prose’.

Tia Fisher (Author)

15.12.2023
Why is it Important to Cover Suicide Responsibly in Young Adult Fiction and How Can This be Achieved? Using the World Health Organisation’s 'Preventing Suicide: A Resource for Media Professionals', Janette Taylor looks at how suicide can be covered in a constructive and responsible way by YA authors.

Janette Taylor (Author)

26.04.2023
Talking Tigers: Concepts of Representational Ethics Applied to Non-Human Characters in Writing Children’s Fiction Mimi Thebo looks at the tradition of animal characters in children’s fiction and argues that the destruction of animal habitats and the reduction of non-human species intersect with colonial practice.

Dr Mimi Thebo (Author)

26.04.2023
Travelling Through Time on My Quest to be a Children’s Author Charlotte Teeple-Salas explores why she is compelled to write time-slip stories, and whether their appeal in the publishing industry is a passing trend, cyclical or enduring.

Charlotte Teeple-Salas (Author)

26.04.2023
How to Build a Patriarchy: Conceptualising Themes and Creating Normalised Belief Systems in Young Adult Feminist Dystopias What are the steps for writers for Young Adults who wish to create high-concept patriarchies in their feminist fiction? Sophie Clarke explores the question.

Sophie Clarke (Author)

26.04.2023
Reimagining “Beauty”: Young Adult Fairytale Retellings in Perpetuation of & Resistance to Patriarchy This article utilises an intersectional, feminist lens to analyse the narrative and characterisation choices made by the authors of several different iterations the fairytale ‘Beauty and the Beast'.

Zoe Marriott (Author)

26.04.2023
More than Just a Thing with Feathers: The Importance of Hope in Middle Grade Fiction This article unpacks our understanding of hope – what it is and what it isn’t – and how it informs the way we write for a Middle Grade audience.

Carley Lee (Author)

26.04.2023
Don’t Look Back In Anger: The Mythic World-building of Melinda Salisbury’s Her Dark Wings Through a close reading of 'Her Dark Wings' by Melinda Salisbury and Ash Bond’s own work-in-progress this article examines the use of mythology as a megatext.

Ash Bond (Author)

26.04.2023
The Niagara Effect: Reimagining Emotional Intensity in Young Adult Writing YA authors frequently employ an expressive first-person voice for “immediacy”. However, in this article, Weisz argues that overtly emotional first-person voices can sometimes actually prevent, rather than enable, emotional intensity.

Noah Weisz (Author)

26.04.2023